He also said that as of the morning of October 19 Ukraine’s gas storage facilities held 16.7 billion cubic metres of gas.

After the Asia-Europe Meeting /ASEM/ summit in Milan on October 16 and 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia was making advances concerning Ukraine’s gas debts and hoped the European Union would help Kiev to cope with cash deficiency. He said Russia was underpaid at least 5.5 billion U.S. dollars of Ukraine’s debt. Nonetheless, the Russian leader said, Russia was ready to reconsider the sum retrospectively offering a one-hundred-dollar discount on each 1,000 cubic metres of gas. Thus, the debt would be reduced to 4.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Ukrainian President Petr Porioshenko, in turn, said that Ukraine and Russia had agreed on gas prices for the upcoming winter period. Thus, the gas price for Ukraine will be 385 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres. The deadline for the payment term was fixed on March 31, 2015.